Film Masters presents Tarzan of the Apes. Based on the first part of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 1912 novel of the same name, it is the first time the Lord of the Jungle graced the silver screen. Originally released at a length of over two hours, the film presented here has been cut down to 65 minutes.
Buy Tarzan of the Apes Blu-rayLord John Greystoke is sent to British Africa to suppress Arab slave trading as a title card reveals. His wife Alice accompanies him. Their boat is taken over by mutineers, who send the Greystokes ashore. A sailor named Binns, who tried to protect the Greystokes, is captured by slave traders. Alice has a baby and dies within a year.
Nearby, an ape clan, led by Kerchak and his mate Kala, lost their baby. The clan attack John, and Kala takes the baby to raise as her own. Years pass and a young Tarzan (Gordon Griffith) interacts with the apes, but doesn’t notice a difference until he sees his reflection in a pool of water. Naked with the apes, he sees a tribe wearing clothes, which intrigues him to steal some. (Surely done to appease local censor boards.)
Tarzan finds the Greystoke cabin and inside it, Binn, who suffered ten years as a slave. Binn leaves the jungle to tell of the young Greystoke’s survival. Years pass, and Tarzan is now a man (Elmo Lincoln). Professor Porter, his daughter Jane (Enid Markey), and relatives of Tarzan head to jungle to explore Binn’s claims.
Kala dies, shot by a local tribesman, sending Tarzan into a rage and seeking revenge. A different tribesman kidnaps Jane, and Tarzan rescues her, after previously protecting her from her creepy fiancé and from a lion. Tarzan then rescues then the English search party from a warring tribe. When he gets Jane alone, he acts rather oddly, not having encountered a white woman before and tries to act on the feelings she instills in him. She appeals to his better nature.
It’s clear the story is missing pieces as it is a tad disjointed and ends abruptly with Jane seeming to echo Tarzan’s feeling. The pacing of some scenes is too slow for modern audiences. It’s more an interesting artifact from a bygone era than a good movie, so I would only recommend to Tarzan completists.
The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer displayed at its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Not surprising for a film over 100 years old, the video is rough and inconsistent. Some images are blown out with others too dark. The focus is soft and objects can lack definition, creating muddy images. This is particularly apparent when there is a lot of foliage, such as when Tarzan pursues Kala’s killer. When the apes enter the Greystoke home, numerous vertical scratches run through the frame. Light bleeds around certain frames. The musical track plays in DTS 2.0 Mono. It’s a mix of archival classical pieces picked to match the mood of the scene.
Included as a bonus is the fifth Tarzan film, The Adventures of Tarzan (1921), the third and final appearance of Elmo Lincoln as Tarzan. Based on two Tarzan novels, The Return of Tarzan and Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, The Adventures of Tarzan was a 15-chapter movie serialand has been compiled into a 67-minute film. There is definitely quite a bit missing. In one instance, a title card talks about Tarzan returning from Civilization to the African jungle where Jane (in leopard tunic) “is again at the mercy of Rokoff, a Russian Secret Service agent.” Later, we see Tarzan and Jane escaping a building only to have a title card explaining why Tarzan is trussed up hanging from a tree as lions fight beneath him. This definitely has an adventure serial feel with treasure maps, hidden cities, and various bad guys placing Tarzan in precarious situations. Its inclusion makes the Blu-ray more appealing but still not sure the audience goes beyond Tarzan completists.
